


The Roommates

by Nillen



Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, M/M, Romantic Comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-04
Updated: 2011-08-04
Packaged: 2017-10-22 05:04:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/234099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nillen/pseuds/Nillen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hank McCoy is your ordinary, typical student. His life however, is not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Roommates

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer : X-MEN is not mine.
> 
> This story is beta-ed by Captaingeek from Fanfiction.net, a full gratitude to her. The last two parts of this story are not beta-ed. Sorry for any errors :)

.1.

 

Hank quietly opened the door to his new dorm. He peek his head inside and with his large nerdy glasses covering his blue eyes, he inspected the room. Since it was an academy for chosen students with high profile family background and wealth, combined with high IQ, Hank felt a little bit intimated. He was here because of scholarship and he was the only student in the past ten years that managed to enter the academy through scholarship. Their passing examination was difficult and mind damaging.

Every dorm was in form of apartment. One apartment was shared between four students. Hank stepped inside the place, awed by the decoration and the arrangement of furniture. A television was placed between two huge audio speakers, white couches arranged neatly on top of brown carpet and the balcony was wide, showing off the scene of outside world from their level, the sixth floor. It was only the living room and Hank hadn't checked the kitchen and the bedrooms yet.

As Hank gaped at the scene, he realized he was not alone. There were sounds from the couch, the one with its back facing him and Hank gulped nervously. He opened his mouth to greet his dorm-mate – or mates perhaps? – but the next thing happened glued him hard on his ground.

A shirt was thrown away from the couch, followed by a small giggle and a deep groan. Kissing sounds were heard and another shirt was thrown away. It hit him on his head, it covered his hair but not his eyes as said blue eyes widened in recognition. A gasp echoed in the living room and a throaty moan of 'Erik…!' followed.

Hank stood still, face paled like corpse as his mind scrambled for an escape. He wanted to move, run or whatever before the other occupants of the room realized that he was there. He stumbled in panic, stepping back before he made his action but he accidentally hit the luggage behind him. It caused the bag to fall and became undone. His clothes and books spilled from it.

The sound surprised the two on the couch and Hank felt like dying when one of them raised his head and looked at him over the couch.

The man looked older than him – perhaps about two years older – and his eyes were the colour of icy blue. His hair was dark brown and he was surprisingly handsome. But his expression was the mixture of annoyance and hatred and his icy blue eyes glared at Hank for interrupting them.

Hank squeaked.

"Oh?" then another person revealed himself too. He sat down on the couch and, from the look of it, Hank knew he was the bottom one. His brown hair was disheveled and he looked younger than the first man. He turned to look at Hank and Hank gasped in surprise.

He had the bluest of blue eyes that Hank had ever seen, his lips were red from all those kissing he just did with his… partner and his cheeks were painted with blushes.

Hank could not stop himself from being aroused.

The older man seemed to realize it too and he growled. Hank gulped, encouraged himself to be still and pray for whatever God up there to help him escape the situation. The older man went to stand up, the younger one hastily left his position to pick up their shirts while Hank continued to stand there in vain.

He felt like a baboon in the zoo.

"I'm so sorry that you saw us like that! I am very sorry!" the second man rapidly apologized after shoving a shirt on the older man's face and putting his own back on. Hank realized that he had an attractive accent, perhaps he was an Englishman but then the other man shot another glare at him, stopping him from asking any further question.

"Uhh… it's fine, it's really is. I-I'm Hank, Hank McCoy, the new roommate." Hank forced an awkward grin upon his face and offered a hand. The blue eyed man smiled back, happily taking his hand into a shake.

"It's nice to meet you, Hank! I'm Charles and this is Erik!" he pointed at himself first before his finger moved to the direction of the taller man. Erik grunted, looking away without taking his offered hand next and Hank felt his stomach drop... painfully.

"Don't worry, Erik's always like that. He's a very shy person," Charles grinned, helping Hank to collect his stuff and Erik snorted at his remark. Hank bit his lip and decided to get his things back into his bag before something else happened.

"Erik is not our roommate but his room is just two doors away. Alex will return back from evening practice around six and Sebastian is away for a science trip. You'll meet them later, Sebastian perhaps in two more days but they are nice people." Charles smiled at him, his eyes sparkling in pure honesty and Hank smiled back at him.

They went to put his stuff in his room while Erik stayed on the same couch where Hank first found them. Hank rubbed the back of his neck nervously when they returned back to the living room. The man was watching his every move as if he was expecting Hank to do something bad before jumping to attack… and kill him. Brutally.

Or perhaps that was just his exaggerated imagination.

"And Hank, I hope you're okay with this… but…" Charles flushed as he gave him an awkward grin, titling his head slightly to one side, "Erik and I are boyfriends."

Hank 'oh'ed, unable to form any other better response after the introduction they had given to him. He nodded his head, all in while avoiding Erik's murderous glare that was screaming 'If you're a homophobe, shut up or I'll kick you out through the open windows'.

"Hank?" Charles called him, concern visible in his eyes and Hank nodded his head again.

"I'm fine with that, really." He smiled when Charles seemed to sigh in relief. Erik snorted again, looking away now. Hank suppressed the urge to roll his eyes at him, all he did from the first second they met until now was snorting and glaring.

What a wonderful way to start his first day in Xavier Academy.

 

.2.

 

Hank decided that he couldn't really trust any of Charles's words.

Remember when he said that Alex and Sebastian, their two other roommates, were nice people?

Hank was arranging his things when he heard Charles calling out 'Alex, you're home!' excitingly. Hank blinked his eyes, stopping halfway in his work and stood up from his bed. He went closer to his closed door and quietly opened it. But before he could do anything else, Charles' face – bright as a bulb, mind you – met his own. He let out an undignified yelp out of surprise while Charles laughed seeing his reaction.

"Hank! Alex is back! Come and meet him, quick!"

"Err, Charles-"

"Come on!" Charles grabbed him by his arm and pulled him out from his safe zone. Hank sighed, cancelling the thought of telling the other that they still had few more years to spend together. There was no reason to be so excited about simple things, such as meeting your dorm mates. He let Charles led him to the kitchen and he stopped in his track when he caught a sight of a blond.

Said blond was sitting on one of the chairs at their small dining table with a glass of water in his hands. He looked up at Hank, blue orbs narrowed once their eyes met. His hair was short, pale blond and his body was a bit more sculpt than Hank's but Hank was sure that his height could not even reach his nose. Alex's skin was white, not pale as Charles' but white, like milk. Hank involuntarily shivered at the thought.

The blond looked younger than Charles; perhaps he was in the same year as Hank. He wore sweatshirt paired with tracksuit and Hank remembered when Charles said he would be back from evening practice earlier. What practice could it be?

Alex inspected him slowly, his pale blue eyes staring at him from his head to his toe. Both of them ignored it when Charles asked them whether they wanted him to buy anything for them since he was going out for dinner with Erik. But they did hear him made the decision all by himself with 'Pizza! Or maybe fried noodles? But KFC sounds nice too… How about burger? Perhaps I should ask Erik but Erik likes spicy foods, chicken curry… Oh, this is going to be sooo groovy!'…

… So much for a choice.

Hank realized that Alex made no action at all, other than examining him with his pair of sharp – full with hatred – blue eyes. They heard Charles take his coat and keys, cheerfully bid them goodbye and go to disappear behind the front door.

So Hank did the best thing he could ever think of.

"Hi." He lamely beamed.

Alex's eye twitched.

"Bozo."

Hank felt his so-called kind demeanor crumble within a half second.

"That isn't very nice." Hank reasoned with the young blond but Alex shrugged him off. He leaned back against his seat in a relaxing manner before he titled his head slightly to one side, edges of his lips curling into a smile. It was awful that Hank thought he looked adorable in that way.

"You're not my mom. It's not like I'll give a damn if you were anyway." He smirked, watching Hank with mocking eyes. Hank closed his eyes, took a deep breath and made to return back to his room. He was certain that he had enough of revelations for today. But then, the blond stopped him with his remark.

"You have big feet. You know what people always say about someone with big feet." The blond's voice almost chirped in his ears and he abruptly turned to send a glare at his direction.

"I don't think you want to know whether that's true or not." He could not help but to spit those words bitterly. Alex smiled, masking his true emotions – and intentions, Hank grimaced – all in while, his hand bringing the glass of water close to his lips.

"Maybe. Who knows? You're the student that is being sponsored by the academy, right? I was expecting for someone with perfect everything but you'll do." The blond just nonchalantly drank his water before he stood up and touched him on his shoulders.

Hank stared with wide eyes when Alex leaned forward to him, standing on his toes out of their height differences and whispered sweetly in his ear.

"Hello, Hank. My name is Alex Summers and I'm gonna make your life a living hell."

 

That was the incident with Alex. After that, Hank ran away and refused to speak to him unless necessary.

Hank later learned that Charles took Genealogy as his major course. Erik and Sebastian took Biochemical Engineering and Alex took Psychopathology course. It didn't help that Hank took Anatomical Pathology because that mean he and Alex would be having a lot of classes together.

It didn't also help that the next two days when Hank went to the library to make some research about their first assignment – man, Professor Logan was crude and heartless, and they didn't even start with ice breaking! – he found the loveliest creature that was ever been made on the surface of the Earth.

A young blonde, wavy hair fell to her waist with a pair of brown yellow-like eyes, was standing close to his side, trying to reach for a book that was too high for her to get. Hank had to blink his eyes twice to make clear of his head before he helped the exquisite creature to get what she wanted.

"Oh, thank you so much!" she held onto the book that Hank gave her, head titled up so that their eyes met and Hank felt like a balloon hanging in the air only with a thin, breakable thread holding him still to the ground.

"You're welcome…" he blushed at her beautiful smile, inwardly scolding himself for being so shy.

She laughed seeing his reaction before she held out a hand.

"I'm Raven. I've never seen you here before." She inquired, her smile stayed on her lips and Hank blushed deeper, hesitatingly holding onto her delicate, beautiful hand all in while trying not to pee in his pants out of embarrassment.

"Hank. I'm here under scholarship… I'm currently continuing my second semester from my previous college. Only few students from my college were chosen to take the passing examination." He timidly explained. Raven's smile somehow brightened before she pulled her hand away and clasped it, almost excitingly. Her behaviour, out of blue, reminded Hank of someone else.

"Really? That's awesome! It's really cool, Hank!" Raven complimented him with pure honesty in her tone, making Hank blushed even redder – if that was even possible – and the spell only broken when he remembered that Sebastian – their other roommate – was coming back today and Charles wanted all of them to have dinner together with Erik and his sister too.

Alex, no matter how rebellious he was, could not say 'No' to Charles, especially when Erik was sending an enormous amount of death threats through his glare at him.

Hank, could not agree more.

Hank apologized to Raven and told her that he had to take his leave right away. Raven only giggled, telling him that it was okay since she was very sure that they were going to meet again. After all, Hank still got few more years in here, right?

 

It was around 7 PM when Charles called his name from the kitchen. Hank went out from his room and went to check on the man. Charles smiled at him.

"Can you please set up the table, my friend? I'm kind of busy right now…" Charles politely asked, one hand lifting a frying pan and Hank smiled back at him, feeling at ease when he was with Charles with the exception of a certain German guy. He proceeded to do as what he was asked and it was about five minutes later when he heard the sound of the front door being opened.

Hank turned his head over his shoulder and the sight that greeted him almost made his knees buckle.

A tall man – perhaps as tall as Erik – was standing upon the door, one hand carrying a small luggage while his other hand held a bouquet of red roses. He raised an eyebrow at him, face stoic and Hank was speechless, unable to think of a word to say. Charles peek his head from the kitchen's entrance and his eyes went wide looking at the man.

"Sebastian!" Charles laughed, quickly approaching their other roommate and Sebastian held his arms wide for him. Hank stared as Charles hugged him and afterward learned that the flowers were meant for Charles.

'What is going on?' his mind screamed but Hank just blinked, and continued with his staring. Sebastian laughed, conversing in low tuned voices with Charles who gave a small chuckle as response and when he turned his head to look at Hank again, Hank felt his body turn cold.

His eyes were the colour of darkest black and filled with deadly secrets. Like he was mentally stabbing Hank five times in a row, his threats hanging in the air like black clouds and Alex suddenly passed by him, muttering 'You're dead, Bozo, Sebastian just decided he hates you and he wants you dead' and Hank had to suppress his screams of 'You can't just decide you hates someone only by the first impression!' and 'Alex, aren't you supposed to be sleeping just now, don't just appear out of blue like that!'. So he did what he could do best; he cursed his luck for getting this room and these roommates.

Remembered when Charles said Alex and Sebastian were very nice people?

Hank decided that he couldn't really trust any of Charles's words.

 

.3.

 

Hank remembered home. When he was six, he always helped his mom in the kitchen. Their house was small but it was okay, since Hank was the only child. Their dining table was small too, barely fit to place six plates. But they had fun anyway. His dad loved to tell jokes and tease his mother, his mother loved to give him some of her delicious meal, like fried chicken and broccoli.

Hank woke from his reverie when something was thrown to his head. He blinked his eyes and looked at Alex, who was sitting in front of him, the dining table sandwiched between them. Alex was smirking, his hand under the table while another playfully tugging on the strand of his own blond locks. Hank twitched his eyes and turned to look at his surroundings.

The table was round and small, enough for four but currently they had seven people; Hank and his three other roommates, Erik, Raven and Armando that told him to call him 'Darwin' instead. He was invited by Alex in close call, not that Hank cared anyway. Hank got Raven on his left side and Sebastian on his other side. Charles sat in between Sebastian and Erik while Darwin occupied Raven's other side, followed by Alex. Since the table was round in shape, Alex sat side by side with Erik, closing their circle.

Oh, and Raven, lovely, beautiful Raven was Charles's younger sister. Hank gaped at both of them for a good five minutes before Erik hit him upside his head. He just couldn't believe that Raven and Charles were siblings but then again, their characteristics were almost the same.

Raven smiled, saying 'Hi' with her beautiful voice and pretty eyes staring at him and Hank decided that whoever her sibling was, it wouldn't matter at all.

"So Hank, do you like it here?" Darwin questioned him all of a sudden, his politeness and friendliness made Hank less nervous than he did earlier and he smiled at the black man.

"It's lovely. Everything is perfect. I couldn't ask for more!" He replied meekly and Darwin laughed at his answer.

"Alex didn't bully you or something?" he grinned and later 'ow'ed when Alex stepped his feet under the table. Hank blinked, nervously smiling at the threatening glare he got from Alex.

"Umm… no." he timidly muttered and Alex gave a victorious smile. Darwin only raised an eyebrow and stopped asking for more. Sebastian beside him didn't even look at him but Raven was being a sweetheart, sharing her fish fillet with him and Hank felt himself melt at her perfectness.

But one more thing that Hank couldn't stand was the fact that Sebastian and Erik were having a glaring contest.

Charles, who was sitting in between them, did not seem to be bothered at all. He cheerfully shared his meal with both of them while asking Sebastian about his trip and asking Erik about his day. But the two guys – seriously, they were both scary – didn't stop sending glares at each other. Sebastian, however was smirking all the time and Erik was looking irritated instead.

"And so I was thinking if we could go and watch the new movie together, you know, about mutants, what is it called again, Raven-"

"X-MEN First Class, Charles-"

"Yes! That one! I heard it was so groovy and most of my classmates-"

Hank wanted to bang his head against the table. Charles just couldn't stop talking and nobody seemed to care about that at all. Sebastian then darted his eyes to the cheerful brunette, disconnecting his stare from the German.

"That would be nice, Charles, I'd be happy to accompany you." Sebastian smiled, eyes closed and shivers ran through Hank's nerves. Alex snorted at their oldest roommate while Erik narrowed his glare.

"I think he'll go with me and me alone, Shaw."

"Oh, you can talk."

Six pairs of eyes went to his direction and Hank stopped half way in motion to close his mouth. He didn't mean to say that out loud, his instinct worked faster than his brain sometimes.

"I didn't mean to say that out loud… I'm sorry, it's just, I never hear you speak a word." He nervously whimpered. Erik twitched his eyes at him while Alex rolled his.

Raven laughed seeing the situation while Charles happily clasped his hands.

"Or we can ask Hank! What do you think, my friend, do you have any free time on this weekend? We can go and explore New York, too!" he smiled that ten thousands watts smile and Hank felt all those death glares around him darkened. He needed to ask Charles to stop pulling him into a situation that required his neck to be cut into three parts.

"Umm… I have group discussion on this weekend." He bowed down his head, feeling sweats forming on his forehead and Charles' bright smile faded into a pout.

"That's so unfortunate, Hank…" Charles sighed, closing his eyes before he continued to eat. Erik put more pressure in his glare, perhaps because he made Charles sad and Hank wanted to scream 'please just leave my poor soul alone!' but he decided to against that.

The atmosphere turned silent all of sudden and Hank inwardly sighed.

It didn't feel like dinner gathering, not like his home.

And then he felt it again, someone was throwing something at him. He titled his head up and a pea hit him on his forehead. He gritted his teeth and touched his abused forehead, at the same time glaring at his attacker, Alex Summers who was already prepared to throw another pea at him.

Definitely not like home.

 

Hank quietly jolted down some notes on his book, at the same time his ears perking to listen to his professor. Currently he was in anatomy class and Sean, a redhead with freckles all over his face was sitting next to him.

"Hey, I don't really understand what the Professor is talking about." He whispered at him, head titled down while hand drawing doodles on his note book. Hank blinked his eyes, turning his head to look at his friend.

"Well, stop drawing and start concentrating then." He smiled. Sean pouted, putting his pencil down and looked back at him.

"This is boring, I wish I can just go and fly anywhere!"

Hank suppressed his laughter at the statement.

"But you can't fly, Sean!"

"Hey! We should invent something that can make me fly one day-"

"McCoy and Cassidy," both of them startled when Professor Scott was now standing in front of their desks. Hank had his eyes wide, looking at their lecturer while Sean gaped like a fish out of water beside him. Professor Scott had his black shades on his eyes and his lips were in a thin line.

"Having a nice conversation?" he asked monotone voice. Hank shook his head quickly and Sean stammered with words.

"N-No… we just discussing about what you are teaching us just now, Sir!" Sean squeaked and Hank watched a frown appeared on Professor Scott's forehead. He was just about to retort back but then, the door to their lab was opened and Professor Logan peep his head in.

"Oi, Scott, come e're ya dork."

Hank and Sean paled even more when their younger professor seemed to hold himself from exploding. Hank could just imagine his eyes shooting laser at their dishevelled looking professor but he just said nothing and went out to approach the latter before closing the door again.

Everyone in the lab fell silent by the sudden sight and Hank blinked his eyes.

"You know, people say they're fucking." Sean piped out of blue and Hank turned to stare at him with blank face.

Was it him or almost everyone that he knew here seemed to be homo?

Once their classes were finished for the day, Hank went to accompany Sean to the park. He said that they needed some time to relax and he couldn't agree more. It was a week after the dinner incident and everyone seemed to be back to routine.

Charles and Erik, both of them could be fucking anywhere and anytime. Hank just had to be a lot more aware after two days ago, where he accidentally ran into them; Erik had Charles against the elevator's wall, one hand in his pants while another behind his neck, both of them were kissing like tomorrow was not going to come and Hank had fainted right away.

Raven was beautiful as always. Hank learned that she was taking psychology as major course and they did have some classes together. It was heartwarming and definitely enjoyable.

Sebastian was on a mission to kill him. He just knew it. The man always stared at him, with his dead looking eyes that would only shined in delight when he saw Charles and glinted in mischievousness when he saw Erik. And Hank had found him once, inspecting a knife in the kitchen and smiling like a psychopath like how he always did when he looked at Hank and Erik. Especially Erik.

… Hank thought that they got threesome issue. Maybe he could just ask Raven about it later.

And Alex. Dear God, Alex  _fucking_  Summers was the worst of all devils. He loved to bully him, trip him so that he would fell face first on the floor, putting cockroaches in his bag, playing with the light switch when he was using the bathroom and he loved to steal his glasses.

Hank swore one day he would lock him in the closest for a good 24 hours.

"It feels just like yesterday when I ate that delicious pumpkin pie." Sean mumbled beside him, one hand holding on his grumbling stomach while another carrying his bag over his shoulder. Hank raised an eyebrow.

"It was yesterday, Sean." Hank pointed out and Sean reddened at the fact. He turned to walk in front of him but backward as he faced him. Hank just smiled and kept walking forward.

"You know, I'd love to go to your room now." Sean grinned, the sunlight radiant on his red hair and Hank grimaced at the thought.

"No, you don't want to, believe me." He replied with a shake of his head. Sean huffed, stopping in his track and automatically Hank was stopped too.

"But you're so lucky! You're living with Sebastian Shaw, one of the top students in the academy, he got full pointers for every semester, do you know that? And you got Professor Scott's little brother, Alex Summers and the Principal's son, Charles Xavier in the same dorm, too!" Sean spread his arms wide, as if he was showing how great his life was.

Hank blinked his eyes. Professor Scott's little brother? Scott Summers and Alex Summers… no wonder their last names sounded the same! And then, his eyes widened at the other revelation.

"CHARLES'S WHAT?!"

 

.4.

 

Learning that your roommates were the combinations of your lecturer's younger brother, one of the top students in your academy and the Principal's son was not all that intimidating. It was the fact that one night, when you were sleeping alone in your room – unlocked door because you forgot to – one of your roommates actually had the tendency to sleepwalk.

This happened for the first time after Hank's first month staying in the dorm.

Charles always reminded him to lock his door in case if something or someone wanted to break in and he remembered how he gave the older boy a blank look. It was not that he was ungrateful that Charles cared but really, the academy was secured enough that nobody could ever get passed the main gate without student card.

He fell asleep on his desk, few hours later blinking his eyes open and sleepily went to adjust his clothes. He got into his bed and proceeded with his sleep. Then he heard the sound of his door being opened, at first Hank thought it was just an imagination but when a body slumped to lay beside him, his blue eyes snapped open.

Hank could felt it. The body was smaller than his. Definitely not Sebastian – he sighed gratefully – and the body was slightly built – not Charles then – but it didn't help him at all. He felt himself sweating despite his air conditioner was on and he slowly turned to look at the intruder.

Alex was sleeping peacefully beside him. Blue eyes hidden underneath his eyelids, his pretty long eyelashes almost touched his cheeks. His face was faintly flushed and his lips parted for soft snores to escape. Hank blinked his eyes, captivated by the sight and unable to mutter a word.

It wasn't his fault that Alex was the biggest bully that had ever lived but if only Alex behaved like a good, civilized roommate, Hank would think that he was indeed… perfect. It was disturbing but then again, it was a disturbing truth. Alex was a fine young man, handsome, beautiful, too, courtesy of his curvy hips and white skin and blue eyes and blond hair and Hank thought that he should shut up by now.

Hank groaned into his pillow as he tried his best to ignore the man beside him.

The next morning when he woke up, his bed was only occupied by him. He wasn't sure how Alex woke up in the morning, how he reacted to everything but he knew that when he woke up, he was alone.

It happened again after that, when Hank accidentally fell asleep on the couch in the living room. He found Alex sleeping next to him on the small couch but he didn't have the heart to wake him. He woke up alone too. After that, Hank decided to not lock his door. So the incidents expectantly happened at least once in a week. There was only one fact that made him curious. It was that Alex sleepwalked to him, not into his room but if he voiced the question to Alex, it would either cause him to get a broken nose or a dismissal. Both were out of question.

And Hank would sometimes watch as Alex entered his room, body swaying and eyes closed before landed on his bed. When Hank had the courage, he would ran his fingers gingerly through Alex's blond hair, feeling the silky texture of his hair – no matter if Alex had spilled his coffee on his pants that morning – and it was outrageous, because Hank simply thought Alex looked wonderful when he was sleeping. It did help a lot that Alex never mentioned anything about his sleepwalking and even if he did realized he did it, he looked like he didn't care at all.

But for Hank, the feeling of waking up alone - when he knew someone was sleeping so close to him the night before – wasn't all that good.

 

"Hank?"

Hank blinked his eyes when Charles called out his name. He titled up his head and his eyes met with Charles' concerned ones. Currently they were having their breakfast in the kitchen, with Sebastian sitting next to Charles and Hank opposite of him. Alex was absence, probably still in his dreamland. Hank smiled when Charles gave him a glass of orange juice.

"You don't look very well, my friend… are you feeling all right?" Charles asked worriedly and Hank felt a little bit of himself touched by his friend's concern.

"I'm fine, Charles… I'm just sleep deprived…" he murmured, closing his eyes and rubbing one of them with his fist. Sleep deprived out of a certain blond boy, he inwardly snorted at himself. Charles sighed while Sebastian just raised an eyebrow. Then the young Xavier turned to look at their older roommate and poured him more coffee.

"My class ends around three today. Do you want to grab late lunch together?" Charles asked him and Hank watched as Sebastian smiled, his black eyes observing Charles' movement with interested eyes.

"Why, of course I want to." He replied with a small smile. Hank quietly sipped on his juice. Sometimes he wondered if Charles was ignoring it or he obviously did not care when Sebastian was looking at him in such way. Hank doubted that Sebastian actually liked him like how Erik did; maybe it was because of his wealth or because he was Erik's. Hank believed it was more to the latter.

But who know? Sebastian was a secretive man and he enjoyed having Charles around him. Maybe he was indeed in love with him?

"Morning, Bozo."

Hank twitched before he looked at his left. His bully just woken up from sleep, hair tousled, eyes half lidded and body swaying, and his first sentence was 'Morning, Bozo.'.

Charles scolded the young blond whilst he rolled his eyes at him. Sebastian just chuckled before continued to read his newspapers.

"Morning, Charles, Sebastian." He mumbled next, heading toward the refrigerator and opened the door. He took a carton of milk out from it and undone the cap. Hank watched with wary eyes when Alex drank it from the carton, some spilled from his mouth and dripped down to his neck. Somehow Hank could not tear his eyes away from him.

Alex ignored him, clumsily wiped away the dripping liquid by the back of his palm and casually returned to them. He pulled a chair and sat beside Hank. Hank only looked down on his toast and silently spread some peanut butter on it.

"I'm going out for a movie with Darwin today," Alex stated, taking his own plate and some toasts from the mountain of toasts that Charles had made. They could feed the whole academy with those toasts, Hank mused.

"Please call me if you decide to sleep somewhere else tonight." Charles gave him a look and Alex rolled his eyes again at him. Sebastian downed his cup of coffee before he folded back the newspapers. He went to put his cup in the sink – it was Alex's turn to do dishes this week – and went back to envelope Charles in one armed hug.

Hank stared at them.

"I'll be in the library if you ever need me." He told Charles who smiled friendlily at him, darted his later blank eyes to Alex and Hank before he left. Hank bit his lip, mentally preparing himself with his question.

"Charles, what is exactly your relation with Sebastian?" he murmured quietly, his voice turned out to be smaller than he intended. Alex looked at him, disbelief visible on his face while Charles smiled, as if he had been expecting that question from him. The brunette then stood up from his chair, smoothen the crinkles on his white apron before he proceeded to place the other dishes into the sink.

"Sebastian is a very good friend." He answered with much tenderness in his words but Hank was not satisfied.

"I don't think Erik appreciate it when he treats you like you're his… boyfriend instead of his." Hank uttered his thought out loud and Alex huffed beside him.

"Sebastian and Erik are cousins, Bozo. They had been racing against each other in almost everything. That includes Charles Xavier." Alex responded instead, both of them earning a disapproving look from said brunette for that. Charles rubbed his hands on a clean towel and undone his apron, retreating back to his seat afterward.

"There is nothing between us but friendship. I've known Sebastian even longer than I knew Erik."

Hank blinked his eyes at those words whilst Alex leaned against his seat, his arms on his chest.

"We're roommates. Erik knows that I love him and all of you too, so please don't bring any of these questions up again. Please, Hank?" Charles turned to look at him, face pleading and Hank heaved a sigh. He still felt that Charles was not being completely honest and no matter how much Erik scared him, Hank was sure than Erik trusted him and Alex to look for Charles. Hank was just worried.

"Fine, Charles…" He nodded his head submissively before he left the kitchen, barely sparing any glance back.

But he did realize that Alex's eyes followed him until he disappeared into his own room.

 

It was weird.

Well, it had been weird ever since Hank first knew Alex but now, it was weirder. Sometimes when Hank occupied the kitchen late at night, Alex would come in too to get some drink. When both were feeling tired and sleepy, they usually wouldn't even look at each other.

Hank never paid attention much to it, those two months earlier but perhaps ever since he accepted Alex to be his night guest, he started to realize Alex. To realize his every motion, the words he chose to speak and the way his eyes would show his real intention.

Alex was a man of action. He couldn't, didn't know how to deal with words sometimes and Hank was fascinated at the way his eyes would gleam when he saw something exciting - the lab rat got cut into half -, fading into darker blue when he was feeling down - his exam result was slightly lower than Hank's - and dilated when he saw Hank. Eyes would only dilate when someone saw the person they loved - and the person that they hated. Hank didn't know what to comment.

And Alex seemed to be losing his interest in Hank as days passed but he still did it on occasions. Sometimes when Hank sat down alone in the dark corner of the library, he would muse about all those things. He somehow became suspicious, and doubtful. Hank wasn't sure if it was him or Alex actually started to treat him better. Perhaps Alex had matched two with two, about their night occurrences and was feeling bad about it?

Aside from Alex, Hank had accepted the fact that he wouldn't get any clear picture of his other roommates. Erik looked frustrated sometimes, when Sebastian was all over Charles and Charles, no matter how much he tried to prove to Erik that nothing was ever going to change – Hank accidentally overheard them one night, he wasn't eavesdropping, mind you – Erik seemed to be very unconvinced. Hank didn't have the heart to ask Raven about it, she was busy with her study these few weeks and Hank rarely saw her came for dinner any more.

"Oi, Bozo, daydreaming, aren't you?" Hank snapped out from his reverie, turning his head to look at Alex who already took an empty seat opposite of him. The mahogany table separated them and Hank frowned a little bit at the presence of Darwin.

Darwin smiled jovially at him.

"Hey, man."

"Hey." Hank faked a smile before proceeding with his book. He realized that Alex was frowning at him and felt a kick underneath the table.

"What?" He snapped unintentionally at the young blond, causing him to jolt a little. Alex threw a mini dictionary on his head, probably mad for being snapped at and Darwin hastily took his role as the peacekeeper.

"Alex-"

"I just want to ask him whether he was feeling all right or not!" Alex barked at both of them. Darwin startled at his words and Hank was equally taken back. But they couldn't manage to do anything as Alex grabbed his bag, muttering curses under his nose and stood up.

"But I guess Bozo can take care of himself." He spitted bitterly before he took quick paces out from the library. Hank was grateful that there weren't many students – there were only him, Darwin and a nerdy redhead somewhere close to them – at this hour but he couldn't shake the sudden feeling that overwhelm him.

Alex cared for him?

"What's wrong with him?" he found himself asking the black man when he couldn't find any other words to fit in. Darwin looked at him, looking bewildered as well.

"I don't know. I'll go get him." Darwin smiled apologetically at him before he ran off to the same direction that Alex took. Hank was left behind, all alone except for the little redhead that could be dismissed as the wall decoration.

But really, Alex cared?

 

On Monday, Hank was late for his morning class. He forgot to put his alarm, courtesy to his distraction on Alex's scent that once again sleepwalked into his room. He ran to his Biology class, came into an abrupt stop and quickly entered the classroom. It was fortunate that Miss Jean was late too and he scanned the classroom for an empty seat.

His eyes caught Alex, who was sitting on the third row and second last to the left. Alex met his eyes for the briefest moment before he looked away. Hank was dumbstruck. When did they become this awkward without even trying to be awkward, actually?

He quietly took a seat beside an Asian guy – Chinese, perhaps? – and took out his notes and utensil as Miss Jean finally made her appearance. It was two days ago, the incident at the library and ever since then, Alex only glared and frowned at him when they met or having meals together, not saying anything instead of those and Hank felt a little bit off. That was because Alex stopped bullying him for a good two days.

He should be happy that his bully had turned into a civilized human being but he was not. Hank twitched his eyes at his own thought, perhaps it was because he didn't know why did Alex stopped. That must be it, he mused with a frown. He should go and confront Alex later on. Why Alex was acting like a weirdo – or a moody teen – at the first place anyway?

Hank was surprised later on when Miss Jean told them that she was going to give them their first assignment for pair-work today. The gist of the assignment turned out to be 'Hormones' and she would be the one that chose the partners. Some students groaned and others clapping happily. Hank just smiled when she laughed and pointed out the brighter note of the assignment.

The students were given the liberty to choose what type of hormones they wanted to study.

But when she started to call out the names, Hank felt his body turn cold.

"Laurie Landon and Jenny Clintons…"

A loud high-five was heard and Hank gulped as the names passed by his hearing-

"John Allerdyce and Robert Louis Drake…"

Groans and some curses but Hank could care less-

"Hank McCoy and Alexander…" she stopped halfway, eyes scrunching as if she was making a decision. Hank felt his breath hitch, unable to look and see Alex's reaction so instead, he turned to the Chinese guy beside him. The Chinese smiled at him and Hank realized that on his notebook, the name written there was 'Alexander Chong'. His blue eyes widened and his mind screamed-

 _'There's two Alexs in this class? Chong, please, Chong! Chong Chong Chong Chong CHONG CHONG CHONGCHONGCHONG- '_

"… Summers." Miss Jean smiled and Hank promptly banged his head against the table.

Welcome to the Universe, people, where life wasn't all that bloody rainbows and fucking ponies.

 

.5.

 

Hank stared at the young blond sitting across him. Alex had his eyes fixed on him. Both of them refused to budge, even as the noisy background of the library threatening to break their staring contests. It was unnerving that Miss Jean declined to change their partnership even though the decision was mutual. So, right now, they were practically stuck with each other until their assignment was to be submitted. Since it was only a short assignment – thank God – Hank thought that maybe he should make an offer.

"What if I do this assignment for both of us? I'll try not to waste any of your time-"

"That's not how we work here, Bozo." Alex interjected him, blue eyes narrowed in annoyance and Hank inwardly whimpered.

"I might look like this but I do my work. So first we're going to do the definition, separately. 'What are hormones?' Go dig some fucking philosophies or whatever about it. Scientific, remember, Bozo. At the same time, look for any type of hormones that you like. We'll combine and pick one randomly." Alex dismissed their meeting with a wave of his hand and made an attempt to stand but Hank quickly grabbed his arm.

Alex's pale blue eyes widened once their skins touched and Hank abruptly pulled back, involuntarily blushed at his own blunt action.

"What's wrong with you?" Alex frowned at him. Hank closed his eyes and heaved a sigh, one palm went to cover his face.

"Why are we like this, Alex?" Hank questioned him, voice muffled by his palm but audible. Alex stared at him even more before he grabbed his bag and nonchalantly walked away. But his question met an answer.

"Because of something that you did."

 

"Hank, which colour do you think is better?" Raven smiled as she showed two different colours of shawls, one blue and one red. Hank scrutinized his eyes at the shawls before pointing on the blue one.

"Blue suits you better." He smiled and Raven laughed merrily. She wrapped the blue shawl around her neck and placing back the red on the hanger. Then she dragged him to the counter to pay for it.

Hank smiled as she watched her enjoyed her time in their outing. It was Sunday and they didn't exactly plan to go out together. It was because she came to the dorm to look for Charles and Charles had left for a study date with Erik. Only Hank was present and she cheerily came out with the idea.

They were currently in one of the closest malls to their academy. They went there by bus and Hank, since he never went out for shopping or something related ever since he entered the academy, was awed. He usually went to buy his books with Sean at the nearest bookshop but never a mall.

After they paid for the shawl, they headed to the food court to have lunch together. Hank spent quite an enjoyable time there, listening to Raven's stories about Charles and their childhood.

It turned out that they were not related by blood because Raven's father married with Charles' mother after his father's death. She was five when it happened and after so long spending moments with Charles, she felt as if Charles were her real brother, not stepbrother.

She was also there when Charles first met Sebastian and later, Erik, growing up together at the same high school.

"Before Charles met Erik, he was a total nerd, bookworm and didn't even think of any sexual relationship! But when Erik came along," she smacked one fist into her one palm, creating a sound effect, "It's BAM! The hormone engines went on max and he suddenly had a sex drive to rival Zeus or something. "

Hank couldn't help but frown.

"And you thought that was good?"

Raven nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders.

"I am happy that he finally found something that is moving to have sex with. You're supposed to be happy too since no one can actually survive more than a week with them. Erik's crazy and he is the definition of 'Possessive' itself and my brother is like 'What are you talking about, Raven? Erik is a very fine young man!' Like really?" Raven imitated her brother's accent and Hank laughed at her antic.

"Yes, I found it quite hard to apt myself at first. I mean, I walked into them in the kitchen twice, in the elevator, the bathroom and even the library!" Hank nodded his head, flushing slightly whilst Raven rolled her eyes at their mentioning.

"Oh, come on, Hank! Don't be too innocent and naïve! They make out everywhere! Before you came, the wall near the brown armchair was tainted! It took Alex and his gut to paint it back before Dad realized what it was."

Hank paled at the word 'everywhere' and quickly shook his head.

"You mean, everywhere… as if…  _everywhere_?" he asked slowly, more like word by word causing Raven to smirk and laughed.

"Yes, Hank, everywhere, and I hate it when we have dinner together, to see Charles blushed and Erik smirked because under the table, it was certainly not a clean business." She mumbled before munching on her pizza. Hank paled even more, but he said nothing else to add. Raven continued to talk about her study life and Hank listened all through her words.

And suddenly he thought about Alex. Would Alex ever sit in front of him, replacing Raven and laughed with him? Talking as if they were friends, not foe or whatever it was?

Hank couldn't help the sickening twist and cold in his stomach at his wonder. Because it was utterly wrong when he wished he could have Alex like that.

 

Hank walked side by side with Raven, arms linked as they explored the third level of the mall together. However, when they passed by one of the bookshops, Hank had to stop in his track. Raven followed him and blinked her eyes.

"What is it?" she asked him, bewildered and Hank only stood still, until two figures left the shop and seemed to acknowledge them too. The black man was the first to greet them.

"Hey! Hank, Raven!" Darwin smiled, his hands full with bags and stuffs while Alex standing beside him just stared at them. Raven grinned happily, edging closer to the duo, at the same time pulling Hank along too.

"Hey, guys! Shopping for books?" she winked her eye at them and Hank frowned despite the laughter that Darwin gave afterward.

"Yeah… Alex wanted to search for a book and it's hard to find, Hemingay or something-"

Alex quickly cut Darwin with a disapproving look. "Ernest Hemingway, The Sun-"

"-Also Rises, 1926." Hank continued instead, earning a surprised look from Alex and double wondered looks from Darwin and Raven. Hank blushed when he realized that both of them seemed to have interest on the same author but Alex said nothing.

"It's a popular work," he muttered quietly with a flush and Darwin gave an unreadable stare at him. Alex nudged his friend on his side and shook his head when Darwin blinked his eyes away from Hank.

"Well, we'd better get going now, don't wanna keep you guys off from your date." Darwin winked back, mimicking Raven's motion earlier and the blonde girl stuck her tongue childishly at him. They said their temporary goodbyes and Hank only watched as both boys made their way to the east. He almost raised his hand to hold onto Alex's, but stopped abruptly.

Why would he want to stop Alex anyway?

 

Hank sat down alone in the kitchen. It was almost two and he didn't have the feeling to go to bed yet. He quietly drank his glass of plain water and afterward looked down at the empty glass.

Another day passed and his life was not getting any better. His study had been well – his parents would be proud of his latest achievement – but not his personal affair. He couldn't get his mind off Alex and Alex had stopped sleepwalked into his room. It was unnerving and weird. Hank couldn't feel the peace of mind that he always wanted from Alex.

Then he heard footsteps approaching the kitchen and a familiar blond appeared upon his eyes. Their eyes met for one moment and Alex turned to make a hasty retreat but no, Hank was not going to get any of this anymore.

He quickly rose from his seat and grabbed on Alex's arm. Alex turned to look at him and hissing, as if Hank hurt him but he wouldn't let go anymore. Hank slammed the shorter blond against the wall and Alex rose up a fist to punch him.

Hank's eyes widened, barely dodging the attack before he grabbed the blond's other arm, securing both of his hands above his head. Alex's blue eyes were menacing when Hank finally looked down again.

"McCoy. Let me go." Hank involuntarily shuddered at the tone of his family name being first called by Alex. Some more time and Alex fucking Summers would finally call him by his first name.

"No. Tell me what I did wrong?" he murmured instead, lowering his head so that their levels were the same and he fought his best to prevent himself from commenting on Alex's sudden blushing. It could be only his imagination; he was not wearing glasses now anyway. Alex looked away, huffing and Hank tightened his grip on his hands.

"You are a busybody, McCoy. You shouldn't ask Charles about his relationship with Sebastian." Alex answered through gritted teeth, causing Hank to freeze for a second. The taller teen furrowed his eyes before he leaned forward even more. Now Hank could felt Alex's warm breaths tickling his face and Alex looked horrified by their proximity.

"Why is that?" Hank questioned again and earned himself a roll of eyes from the blond.

"I don't like it because I know why Sebastian is treating Charles like that. He loves him but he is trying to take Charles away from Erik because Charles is Erik's. Sebastian hates Erik. Erik hates Sebastian. But they want the same person. Charles is like a trophy to win. I overheard Sebastian talking to Emma Frost about that and it felt wrong to do something about it courtesy to the fact that Sebastian is our roommate and Erik's cousin and Charles' friend. When you asked that question, it felt as if you were trying to start a game of doubting, of war, Hank, and Charles is going to be the fucking victim no matter who wins." Alex breathed out almost angrily, voice small but irritated and Hank clenched his eyes shut.

The blond's words were making their way into his mind and he exhaled painfully. Hank let go of the younger teen and Alex promptly rubbed on his nearly bruised arms. The former went to lean against the nearest counter, staring at the floor for a while as the latter warily inspecting him for any reaction.

"… Fine. No more poking my nose into someone else's business." Hank finally muttered, his usual clumsiness and emotional self almost invisible but he did felt surprised when Alex came near him. The blond stopped when they were within an arm reached and crossed his arms on his chest.

"I wasn't mad at you, Bozo. I was uncomfortable. I don't want to be close to you because I'm afraid that I'll blurt out this to you. And at last, I still did." He sighed to himself and Hank finally had the gut to look at him. Alex was standing so close to him now, the scent that Hank had came to like indulge him like madness and he quickly shook his head.

"I'm sorry for making my own assumption. I thought you hate me, like really hate me or something. I don't like that feeling, I'd rather be bullied than be ignored." Hank confessed quietly and he watched as Alex's expression softened with blushes covering his pale white skin. He probably felt quite cold, it must be the temperature, Hank mused before Alex suddenly flicked him on his forehead.

He groaned, touching his forehead and Alex only smirked. The same old Alex that Hank missed so much.

"You should be, Bozo, you should be." He chuckled and Hank, finding the situation somewhat endearing, baring his own teeth.

"And you called me Hank just now, did you realized it not?" he cocked his head side way with an innocent expression and Alex blushed heavier.

"I didn't, stupid!"

"Oh, you so did, Alex-"

"I didn't!"

Alex hit him on his head and Hank quickly grabbed his hand again. Wide eyes, Alex blinked when Hank pulled him to the direction of his room.

"You know what? We should cut all these craps. I have the book that you want in my room, let's go get it now." Hank offered without waiting for his answer.

And he was glad that Alex merely smiled and followed him inside his room without any rebuff at all.

 

.6.

 

Hank entered the kitchen and sleepily grabbed a glass from the counter. He poured himself some water and drank it, his eyes barely opened before he realized that there was no smell of toast or pancake. He put down his glass and promptly looked around him.

He saw Charles sitting at the dining table, face blank and one hand holding onto his cellphone. He didn't seem to notice when Hank came in and Alex, who was sitting in front of him, was staring ridiculously at him. Hank scrunched his eyebrows. Somehow he could feel something was wrong.

"Alex?" Hank called the blond quietly and Alex titled his head at him, his blue eyes narrowed in annoying glance before he put a finger on his lips, signalling Hank to shut up.

Hank inwardly flinched.

Then the blond slowly reached out a hand and touched Charles' that was holding the cellphone.

"Charles…?" Alex gingerly called him and the brunette blinked his eyes, as if he was just waking up from a dreamless sleep. Hank slowly made his way to sit beside their older roommate. "Charles?"

Charles stared at them for a minute or so, face lacking of usual enthusiasm and happiness, and Hank and Alex shared a worried glance. The brunette later on, quietly raised up his hand that was still gripping the cellphone tight and threw the device away. It met the floor with harsh momentum and both younger boys almost stumbled from their seats out of shock.

"Charles! What the hell!" Alex hissed angrily but within a second, his expression turned into a mixture of shock and guilt when Charles started to cry. Hank quickly wrapped an arm around the shorter brunette and pulled him close, trying to comfort him. Charles continued to cry, shamelessly buried his face against Hank's shoulder while Hank looking up at Alex with horrified look.

Alex stared wide eyed at them, his hands hastily clenched into fists. Hank believed that Alex and he were sharing the same new information and Hank wanted so much to hurt someone that caused Charles misery but he couldn't. It wasn't his business at the first place.

Hank opened his mouth to say something to stop whatever thing that Alex got in his mind but something, no, someone caught his sight.

Sebastian was standing upon the kitchen's entrance, face grim and Hank yelled for Alex to stop when Alex suddenly bolted away from his seat. "Alex, stop!"

And Hank 'ouch'ed when Sebastian received a punch on his face, with some of his blood spurted onto Alex's white shirt.

 

"They  _what_?" Raven growled at him and Hank hastily raised both of his hands as an act of defending himself.

"They broke up and it had nothing to do with me, I swear!" Hank whimpered whilst Alex who was sitting next to him, rolled his eyes at him. The blonde girl gritted her teeth, in a frightening way and Hank made a mental note to never mess with one Raven Xavier. She ran her fingers through her brother's brown locks, Charles was deep asleep with his head on her lap.

Raven turned to look around the dorm for one moment before she narrowed her eyes back at Hank and Alex.

"Where's that fucking Sebastian?" Raven twitched and Hank quickly nudged on Alex's side. Alex groaned, looking away before he mumbled quietly. "I broke his nose and he left without a word."

Raven stared at the blond, probably killing him with her eyes. Hank was sure that Raven was mad at him, not because Alex broke Sebastian's nose, but because Alex didn't  _kill_  him.

The reason why Charles and Erik – the fantastic, sex machine, perfect-everything duo – broke up was because Erik found Sebastian kissing Charles in his car. It was an accident, Charles fought and he was about to pull away when he realized Erik was looking at them through the open window. Because it was Erik they were talking about, of course he wouldn't accept any excuses and apologiyes. He stormed away in fury after yelling at Charles and broke one of Sebastian's car's side mirrors.

Poor Charles waited all night and whole morning for Erik to call him and he even slept in the living room because he thought that Erik might come back. He had looked for the German in his dorm but his roommates told him that he said he wouldn't be back for the night.

Charles told them the whole story with a teary face, red eyes and nose and broken spirit, and suddenly, Hank felt like stabbing the cousins with a blunt knife. Blunt knives always caused a more exaggerating pain to death rather than the sharp one anyway.

"I shall find that Lensherr and rip his fucking body to pieces. Oh then he'll know that he should never mess with Charles!" Raven made an attempt to stand but Hank quickly launched forward and held her still by her shoulders.

"I don't think Charles will appreciate that." He stated, matter-of-fact. Raven frowned but listened to him nevertheless. Hank caught Alex staring at his hands on Raven's shoulders but the blond said nothing at all. Feeling quite awkward, all in sudden, Hank let go and returned to his seat.

The three of them were quiet for a moment, with Raven giving worried glances at her sleeping brother and Alex looking out the open window. Hank fiddled in his seat and anxiously opened his mouth to ask the obvious.

"What should we do now?"

Alex turned to look at him, blond hair and blue eyes – suddenly a lot more beautiful than Raven's – gleaming against his and Alex's body was the beautiful silhouette of the sunlight. "Nothing, Hank, nothing."

 

"The context is finished so we should be able to start with the type of hormone by tomorrow…" Alex nodded his head as he re-read their introduction and definition. Hank sat close by his side, underneath the shaded tree outside of their faculty and he smiled when Alex turned to look at him.

It had been few days after the day they found out that Erik and Charles had broke up and things seemed to settle back quietly into places despite the moments of awkwardness between the roommates.

"Have you got those types of hormones that you want?" Alex raised an eyebrow at him and Hank chuckled. He placed four small folded pieces of papers in the blond's hand and Alex shoved them nonchalantly into his pocket. "We'll pick one tomorrow."

Hank titled his head slightly to one side, his blue eyes penetrated the brighter ones with a smile fixed on his face.

"Well, then I suppose we have a lot of time left to kill."

He watched as Alex huffed, looking away from his face with his arms crossed on his chest.

"Maybe we can go out or something? I want to buy some stuff and I have no one to accompany me." Alex mumbled quietly but Hank heard it perfectly well. He suppressed the urge to pinch the blond's red cheeks and inwardly grinned from nose to nose.

"Darwin?" he asked innocently and Alex frowned slightly.

"He's busy, he got test tomorrow or I wouldn't be hanging around with you now, Bozo." He snorted, causing Hank to frown too. He leaned against the tree and adjusted his large glasses for a second.

"We should get going now, I think we can still catch a movie if we do." Hank grinned when Alex looked back at him with wide eyes. The blond also grinned at him afterward and quickly went to stand on his two feet.

"Well, come on, then!"

 

Hank walked side by side with Alex, laughing as they looking for stuffs in the clothes department and Hank was sure that he never did actually enjoyed shopping this much, except with Raven. But when Alex was with him, it felt so much more… perfect.

Alex was something else when he showed his true self. Hank watched with pure admiration when Alex laughed. He was indeed something else. When he laughed, his eyes would go to hide underneath his pretty eyelids and his pearly white teeth were perfectly arranged. He would touch things with his fingertips, careful as if everything was fragile and delicate, and Hank was sure that he would touch Alex like that too.

Alex didn't talk too much. He questioned people too, wanting to share his interest with mutual interaction and Hank would blush when their skins touched. But since Alex was much paler – whiter – than he was, Alex's blushes were much more visible and his tendencies to be shy and embarrassed were wondrous. Hank loved it when Alex turned pinkish red with embarrassment, he looked much more real.

"Ah, it's you again! Looking for a shawl or stuff for your friend?" Hank blinked his eyes and turned to his back. A familiar girl was standing close to them, smiling happily and Hank darted his eyes to look at her nametag. Then he realized that she was the cashier that Raven and he had met when Raven paid for her blue shawl. Hank smiled jovially at her.

"Yes, I am, Miss." He politely nodded his head at her. Alex was staring at them and when he turned to look at Hank with confused eyes, Hank leaned closer to him.

"Remember when Raven and I met you and Darwin in this mall? Raven bought a shawl here and she's the cashier." He explained with a softer smile and then he realized that Alex abruptly let go of a familiar red shawl he had been holding for a while now. Hank blinked his eyes, looking back at the shawl hanging on the hanger but said nothing.

Alex hastily went out from the shop without a word, probably wanted to give some time alone with Hank and the girl. Hank only watched him leave blinked his eyes for one second but once he disappeared from his sight, Hank quickly grabbed the red shawl.

 

The two of them stepped out from the taxi that they took to return to the academy. Hank paid the taxi driver and said 'thank you' gratefully while Alex stood patiently next to him. Once they were alone in front of the main gate, Hank looked back at Alex and Alex raised an eyebrow at him.

"It's 10 PM and I don't think Charles appreciates us being this late." Hank chuckled and Alex snorted at the truth of his words. They walked back to their dorm, side by side and before they entered the building, Hank took Alex's arm in his hand. The blond stopped in his track and darted his eyes at him, bewilderment visible on his face.

Hank flushed but managed to give a small grin. He gently but quickly pulled Alex closer to him and was glad that Alex didn't try to fight him. The blond only stared at him with his wonderful pale blue eyes as Hank shuffling for the red shawl in his bag, oblivious to the blond's acknowledgement. He didn't have his glasses on for the moment and it was getting ridiculous when he kept on grabbing his glasses instead of the shawl inside his bag.

But once he took out the shawl, Alex let out a surprise gasp and hastily put a palm to cover his slightly ajar mouth. Hank felt his grin widened and he wrapped the shawl around Alex's neck, the bag was dropped carelessly on the ground and nobody seemed to care. Alex was dumbfounded for a minute, unable to say a word so Hank decided he should say something to prevent the coming awkwardness.

"I saw you touched it earlier. I thought that maybe you wanted it. I think you look perfect with red, Alex." He murmured gently and suddenly, he wasn't very sure since when they were this close. Alex's nose was almost touching his since he was looking downward and Alex was looking upward. Alex's blue eyes were wide but filled with unknown, intense emotions and Hank, so badly, wanted to discover what.

Then the blond let out a smile – suddenly it was a lot more beautiful than Raven's – and reached out a hand to hold onto one of Hank's hands that were still holding the ends of the red shawl around his neck.

"Thank you, Bozo." He chuckled softly, eyes softened stunningly and Hank found himself being captivated by the younger teen. He slowly leaned closer and he felt Alex also making his way to press himself against his body, their eyes closed and finally their lips met.

It was simple kiss, a chaste, lips pressed on lips one.

It was nothing like those that Hank always read in stories and watched in movies. No electric shock, no bursting of emotions and no singing voices.

But the Earth  _moved_.

Because it was Alex that he was kissing now and Alex felt so real, felt so perfect and real against him and Hank never thought that this would happen.

When they finally pulled away, Hank already had Alex's cheeks in his palms and Alex was holding both of his hands on his cheeks. They took shaky breaths, faces red with blushes and legs trembling in anticipation of what was coming next. Hank was about to open his mouth and say 'Alex, you're so beautiful' when Alex's blue eyes suddenly widened in shock.

The blond took a hasty retreat, one step back and broke the spell, causing Hank's eyes to widen in surprise and perplexity. Then the blond fisted one hand and Hank inwardly groaned, expecting a punch to meet his face because he just kissed Alex fucking Summers, so he clenched his eyes shut, waiting for the upcoming attack.

But then, he felt breeze passed by him, out of hasty movement and opened his eyes back. Hank blinked when he realized that he was now alone and Alex just did something that Hank thought he could never will.

He ran away from him.

 

.7.

 

Hank groaned against his pillow, one fist smacking the mattress and another clutching the pillow tight. It was getting worse. He kept on cursing and hating himself now ever since that night and it just kept. getting. worse.

That was two days ago and now Hank felt like ripping everything apart. He hated this, Alex was starting to avoid him again and Charles was acting like a body with no soul. Sebastian had not returned back to the dorm since Alex punched him and now, Hank felt like the only sane person in their dorm.

Hopefully he would stay sane until the end of the semester. He would just ask for other dorm and live his life normally.

But then, maybe he wouldn't survive at all. He missed Alex already. It was just two days and he missed Alex so much, as if Alex had been away for years. It was okay before, when he only doubted what was it, the feeling of scrunching in his stomach, butterflies? And the shivers that ran through his nerves when Alex was near him and the sudden fasting thumping of his heart against his ribs when he caught Alex looking at his direction.

He had tasted Alex's lips against his two nights ago. He tasted him, smelled him so close, the sweet scent that was purely Alex and it was enthralling, mesmerizing.

Hank was not sure since when he was capable of becoming Alex-deprived but it felt so damn empty and awful when Alex was not around. He didn't see him at all. Perhaps he slept over at Darwin's and Hank growled at the thought.

Was kissing him such a bad idea? What was wrong with it anyway?

Then his eyes widened as he lifted his face from his pillow.

Yes. It could be it.

"Maybe Alex don't even like guys." He said to himself, face dazed with thought before another thought came declining.

"But Alex kissed me back." He frowned, despite there was nobody at all inside of his room except for himself and he quickly got off his bed.

For now, Hank was sure it was time to look for Alex.

 

The morning was not that different than any others. The only difference was that Raven came to have breakfast together with them. Charles was making toasts again as Hank warily watched him, his cup of coffee in his hand. Raven took one of the toasts, spreading some strawberry jam on top of it while her eyes running over Hank.

"What?" Hank suspiciously looked back at the blonde. Raven chuckled, biting a large portion of her toast and munching it before she answered him.

"You looked as if you just got hit by a truck." Raven spoke, tone amused and Hank suppressed the urge to bang his head against the table. He hated it when he became so readable and visible – it was not like he wasn't but still, this was much more – and it was Raven who commented on him.

Raven just chuckled, proceeding with her breakfast and Hank spared another glance at Charles direction. The scene made his jaw slacked.

"Someone should – no, need to stop him." Hank wide-eyed stared at the brunette as he put another two slices of bread into the machine and his eyes were blank as they looked straight at the wall. On the plate next to him, Hank estimated there were more than two dozens of toasts placed and hell, he knew Charles was rich but making a thousand toasts was not a way to mend his broken heart!

Raven was going to stand up and maybe make her brother eat her slap when the front door was knocked. Hank and Raven turned automatically toward the door and Hank began to sweat when Raven's eyes twitched.

Sebastian was away, at his own apartment – it was a wonder why he still resisted staying in their dorm, but then again, there was Charles – while Alex had been staying somewhere else for two days – Hank suspiciously doubted it nowhere but Darwin's – and both of them had their keys. Nobody would usually came in this early morning so that only gave one person away.

Hank quickly bolted for the door before Raven had the chance to and he opened it without a second thought.

There, one Erik Lensherr who currently looked like shit – and damn, he had black circles underneath his eyes – was standing. Hank stared open-mouthed at him while Erik glared – his glare still invincible though – at him.

Raven stood upon the entrance of the kitchen and Charles also had discovered his presence; the brunette still sitting on his chair but his eyes were now focused on Erik.

So Hank cleared his throat and spoke of the obvious, nervously. "Erik, you look awful."

Erik rolled his eyes at him.

"As if you're looking better."

Charles stood up from his chair, his toasts forgotten – thanked God, Hank inwardly screamed – and he was staring at Erik from head to toe, probably inspecting him because it had been almost a week that they hadn't met. Erik also turned to look at the brunette and his face was visible with regrets and guilts, wanting to be forgiven.

… Suddenly Hank felt like one of the casts in 'The Notebook'.

It was a second later when Hank found himself being shoved away from the doorstep and Raven took his previous place. Hank's blue eyes widening in shock when Raven fisted one hand and Hank was only able to shout 'Raven, stop' when her fist met Erik's nose.

Hank 'ouch'ed with his eyes clenched shut at the sound of Erik falling and Charles quickly broke into a run.

"Raven! What have you done!" Charles cried out at his sister and Raven snarled at Erik, who was wiping some blood of his nose. It probably broken, Hank grimaced. Why was everyone around him so excited to break someone else's nose anyway?

Charles kneeled beside his – ex – boyfriend and worriedly touched his face. Erik shot a glare at Raven's direction and the blonde mercilessly kicked him on his hip, which earned her another shout from her brother.

"You should know better than breaking up with my brother, Lensherr!" Raven spitted bitterly at him and Erik, despite Charles wrapping an arm around his shoulders to help him sit, frowned a little.

"I know, Xavier and that's why I'm here, to apologize."

At his words, Hank, Raven and Charles became stilled. Hank blinked his eyes, staring down at the poor soul while Raven unable to make a retort, only her eyes glistening in an emotion that was almost unreadable by Hank; it was probably surprise, mixed with wonder and regret.

Charles was looking back at the taller man while Erik was looking down, absent mindedly trying to stop his bleeding nose and Hank had to fake a cough when the silence seemed to linger more than five minutes.

"Uhh… we'll just… you know-" he attempted and gratefully sighed when Raven cut him off, "Give you two some privacy."

Charles blushed slightly when Erik turned to look at him. Erik was void of emotion, the familiar mask he always wore whenever he was thinking hard and the brunette quietly averted his eyes, his fingers fumbling nervously on his lap.

Hank didn't know what to comment and he merely obligated when Raven pulled him out from the dorm afterward, demanding them to have their privacy at ease.

 

Hank quietly took a sip of his orange juice – from a tin can, thank you – and wiped his mouth when some dripped from his lips. It was a fine morning, the coolness of air and the birds chirping, it was lovely if not by the fact that there were two souls located at his dorm was trying to figure out the flaws in their relationship.

Hank sighed, closing his eyes for a moment as he tried his best to enjoy his peace – alone – on a bench outside of their dorm building. Raven had left few minutes ago, saying that she had some stuff to be done and Hank had waved her goodbye without any feeling of unwanted at all.

He wished he still liked her very much. He wished that she was the one he wanted to kiss every day and night and second and forever. But she wasn't and it wasn't. Hank couldn't get his mind off Alex and he wanted so much to just break out from his poor love life and get laid already. He wished life was that simple but nobody got out of it alive anyway.

His life was not like fairy tales, Hank mused. Not like a fairy tale love story.

His life was much worse.

He remembered when he was a child, he wanted so much to be that one prince that saved his damsel in distress and lived happily ever after. But Alex was no damsel in distress and he was no prince. So he figured, he didn't have that kind of life at all.

"Maybe I got one. It's 'Beauty and the  _Beast_ '." Hank grimaced at himself and continued to drink his juice.

But then, his eyes caught a familiar blond head – he didn't wear his glasses at the moment but that blond hair, Hank never doubt that he'd recognized it everywhere – and he nearly choked on his drink.

Alex was standing not far from him, eyes wide as he stared at him and Hank froze for a moment. He didn't think much, he just knew that the second Alex tried to run away again, he scrammed off his seat and chased after him.

It didn't take long when Hank managed to get a hold on his arm and he almost flinched when Alex turned back at him and struggled so hard to be released.

Hank inwardly watched with open horrification, did it disgust him to no end, being held like this by him?

"Let go of me, Hank! Let go!" Alex shouted at him, trying to pull his arm away and Hank felt something inside of him finally snap. He pulled the younger man closer to him, eyes momentarily scanning their surroundings – there was no one– it was seven in the morning, for Godsake – and growled when Alex tried to push him away.

It kind of shut him up and he looked up at Hank with wide, shocked eyes.

"Stop running away, Alex! I'm not going to kiss you again if you don't want it so much!"

Alex looked bewildered only for a second but Hank wasn't going to let him speak. It was his turn for confrontation now.

"Alex, oh God,  _Alex_! I think I like you, no, I don't, I'm very sure that I like you very much, more than a friend," wow, that was blunt of him, "And I get it if you are not even into guys! I'm sorry, I should have asked you first but you were there and you were so… so perfect and I've never been in any similar situation and I didn't know what to do! I like you very much, Alex and I'm very sure that I want us to stay as friends if not more than that! Please don't run away from me again!"

Alex was staring at him, probably was taken aback after he finished with his speech – Hank believed his voice might be louder than ordinary speech – and Hank blushed involuntarily when he realized what he just said. But at least, it did make his heart felt a little bit more at ease and Alex was also blushing, if he was allowed to point that out.

Then the blond looked away, face miserable as if he was trying to find suitable words to answer Hank.

"It's not like that, you're wrong."

Alex's voice was barely audible but Hank heard him as loudly as a ticking bomb. Hank felt his breath hitch when he realized that Alex didn't mention anything about his sexuality.

"You're a nice guy, Hank, better than I am and I don't regret anything about our… kiss," Hank only blinked his eyes when Alex seemed to turn redder but he refused to lock eyes with him, "But you don't understand. You won't understand. I already have someone else and it will be awful if I... if we… Hank, please, just-"

"What?"

Hank stared at the blond, his blue eyes wide but emotionless as one sentence repeated in his mind.

 _'I already have someone else.'_

His mind screamed for all those evidences that he had seen with his very own naked eyes but refused to notice. He should have known better. It was so real, it was right under his nose.

All this time. Those gestures that they shared, those touches, those glances, that laughter… Alex's tendency to be with him a lot more times that he would with others.

Hank released his arm slowly and Alex titled his head up at him, face visible with disclosure of what Hank might have picked on and Hank couldn't blame him for that.

"You have a boyfriend." Hank let those words escaped his lips, slowly as if they were poisonous and Alex's face scrunched in misery. Hank slowly put one palm against his face, his breathing was shallow and suddenly he felt lacked of air, not enough of space and God, why he had been so blind all this while, so stupid and so careless. He could have prevented this from happening but he was a fool.

A  _bloody_ fool.

So he took another shaky, rigid breath, face looking down, covered with his hand and Alex was standing so close to him, so real to be touched but no, no, no, he was not Hank's.

Hank let out a bitter, small laugh, shoulders shaking remorsefully and God, it hurt, it hurt, _it hurt, it hurt-_

"… And your boyfriend is Darwin."

 

.8.

 

"It's not like that-"

"Then what is it? Not boyfriends but you guys still fucking and you still stick your tongue into his throat, isn't it?"

Alex wanted so much to strangle the taller boy for snapping at him but hearing him using such vulgar words were not something typical. He let out a frustrated groan, running his hand through his already messed up blond locks while Hank continued to look down at him; face stoned and hands clenched into fists by his sides.

Alex fought the urge to roll his eyes at him.

"No, Bozo! But yes, we're like, fucking buddies-"

"My God!"

"But hey, he's not my boyfriend, well, not like that-"

"Then he's your fucking buddy and pray tell, how is that isn't equivalent to boyfriends?"

"Bozo, you're an idiot. We're fucking but I'm not in love with him-"

"You're not in love with me either."

Alex was speechless by his retort, his blue eyes fixed on Hank's as the latter slowly unclenched his fists, his eyes closing and he breathed out shakily. Alex tried to step closer, to hold onto him – for the first time – but Hank was stepping back, avoiding his touch.

It quite hurt, to be telling the truth and Alex suppressed himself from acting out of instinct. They were already ruined. He shouldn't have tried to make peace with the new roommate, he just knew that this would happen but he couldn't help himself.

Because Hank was something else; Hank was different. Alex narrowed his eyes at his own thought; it was appalling to his ego. So he cleared his throat and glared at the older brunette.

"Shut up, Bozo. I just knew that you won't understand." He hissed instead, arms went to cross on his chest while Hank's eyes widened at him, as if he was disbelieving what he just heard.

"I won't understand if you don't stop going around the bushes! Oh God,  _Alex_ ," Hank's hands went flying to his own hair, clutching on it like a frustrated, mad man, "You are going to be the death of me! I'm telling you that I like you and I want you and now, I don't even know whether you're rejecting me or not!"

This time, Alex had to step forward and grabbed on both of his shoulders, shaking him hard to wake him up from his panic attack. Alex growled angrily, "What I'm saying is that I need time, you goddamn idiot, I can't just go and tell Darwin about us! You're so stupid that you deserve an award!"

All his miseries and nervous shit just now had gone completely. He wasn't sure why he hadn't kill the Bozo yet and then, he grimaced, he had to remind himself that he liked him very much.

And so Hank was gawking at him,  _stupidly_ , if he may add.

"You are awfully dimmed for a boy that got one of the best scholarships, McCoy." He gritted his teeth and Hank blinked his eyes at him. His hands were still on his head and Alex let out a heavy sigh.

Everything was so messed up.

"You were not supposed to know about Darwin, damnit and I need time, please, I need to sort things with Darwin first and then I'll… I'll come back to you." Alex whispered his last sentence, his blue eyes looking down to avoid contact with Hank's as he realized that he must be blushing like a damn schoolgirl. Cursed his skin to be such sensitive to temperature, Alex inwardly twitched.

As he waited for Hank to say something, he noticed that Hank wasn't wearing his glasses and he had a pair of tracksuit on with sweatshirt to complete his attire. He seemed to smell too nice for someone who just made his morning run – Alex hated to admit it but Hank always smelt nice – so he believed that he didn't. And it was half past seven, probably later than that so why he was outside their dorm?

And Hank,  _please_  say something, Alex inwardly grunted; he was confessing his feeling here, hello! Give some respond?

"Alex."

Alex shuddered involuntarily at the tone he used before he encouraged himself to look up at him. Hank was smiling, shyness visible in the red spots of blushes on his cheeks and one of his hands was rubbing on his nape.

An act of sheepishness.

"What?" Alex decided to retort angrily but his voice only came out in a short whisper. Hank bit his lip before he looked down on the ground, as if it was the most interesting thing to look at the moment.

"I'm sorry for losing my control, I-I'm really sorry…" Hank almost squeaked when Alex suddenly pushed himself close against his chest, their eyes met and Alex grabbed him on the back his neck with one hand.

"You don't know how to kiss, man."

Hank's eyes widened and Alex felt his smirk curved on his lips.

Yezza, the  _awesome,_  bully head Alex Summers just came back from the lake of death a. k. a love issue, ladies.

"So we'll need to give you some practice. Try kissing me again." Alex chuckled, titled his head to one side almost innocently and Hank was now blushing miserably but he just nodded. The taller boy slowly leveled down himself so that they were nose to nose and Alex felt his eyelids fluttered close by their own accords.

Hank smelt delicious. Like sweet, hot chocolate with tints of mint. He was taller, warm and less muscular than he was but that was fine. He fitted in his arms better.

When their lips finally met, Alex let out a soft breath – since when he had been holding his breath anyway? – and Hank carefully pulled away a second later. But his hands stayed on the sides of his waist while Alex's wrapped around his neck. Alex opened his eyes slightly, staring in daze at those blown, blue pupils in front of him before he let a lazy smile grace his lips.

"It is good enough?" Hank whispered and Alex suddenly realized that he looked so pretty in close distance. Alex chuckle breathily, his eyes went to stare at the other boy's lips and he licked his own very sensually.

"Not up to my standard-" another kiss was pressed against his lips and Alex let himself drown into the sensation that was Hank. Hank pulled him closer by the waist but their lips only pressed on each other's not more than few seconds. Hank pulled away again, smiling dazedly and Alex almost laughed, muttering, "Again, Hank."

And they kissed again.

 

They managed to find their way up to their dorm – Hank was at least concerned that other people might see them, worst,  _Darwin_  and Alex hit him upside his head when he realized that was actually a mock –, hands locking and Hank kept stopping them at every turn to push him up against the wall and kissed him breathless just for the sake of it.

Alex couldn't stop himself from laughing when they came near their door and Hank shuffled for his key in his pocket – he seemed to have this ability of failing to look for his things – his mouth fixed on Alex's in a messy but passionate kiss. Alex grabbed on his hair, forcing himself closer and deeper into their kiss, his back against the door and Hank growled – sexily, Alex whistled – when the door finally unlocked.

Alex found himself being shoved inside and he playfully stepped away when Hank wanted to pull him close again after he closed the door back. He smirked and swirled around to head into Hank's bedroom, making sure his hips swaying in the way that he knew was too hot to be ignored, with the brunette followed him close behind. Hank's hands wrapped around his waist from behind and Alex chuckled when he heard ' _You tease!_ ' rang into his ear.

They finally stopped in front of the door, which surprisingly was open and Hank dropped his hands from Alex at the sight that greet him while Alex that stood in front of Hank was unable to say a word at all.

Charles and Erik were kissing each other furiously on Hank's bed. The latter had the former pinned down underneath him and they were half naked. Charles was whimpering and moaning in their kiss, hips trying to shove themselves up to meet Erik's and oh God – was that Erik's hands that worked to pull down Charles' pants?

Hank was the first to react.

"Oh my  _GOD_!  _MY EYES_!" he put a palm to cover his eyes before he took a step back and Alex had to roll his eyes at him. It seemed like they were not going to have sex any time soon.

The scream startled the lovers off and Charles quickly sat down, looking at them over Erik's shoulder while Erik growled menacingly.

"Fuck off." The German barked and Charles patted him on his shoulder, expression disapproving his manner. "Language, Erik."

Alex snorted at them while Hank blushed madly beside him. It took about thirty seconds before the latter finally had the courage to speak again, squeaked actually.

"This is my… my room…" he whimpered and Charles' eyes widened as if he just realized it too. But Erik was fast to hold him down.

"We're borrowing it, kid, just go snog your blondie in Charles' room or whatever. You'll manage… I  _think_." Erik frowned a little at the end of his words.

"Seriously, man, you guys are insufferable."Alex made a face at him. Hank was possibly getting a tan by all those burnings blushes on his face. Charles only managed to give an apology with his eyes when Erik stood up and slammed the door on their faces.

Alex went on rampage to kill him but Hank quickly stopped him, holding him down and kissed him again.

 

"I think I know what kind of hormone we should do for our assignment?" Hank mumbled while kissing Alex's jaw, both of them draped on the couch. Alex moaned, titling his head up slightly.

"What is it, Bozo?"

"Oxytocin."

Alex quickly pulled himself away, creating some distance between them but Hank actually  _whined_ , promptly pulling him closer again for another passionate kiss. Alex put his hands on the brunette's cheeks, whispering against his now red lips, a chuckle escaping his.

"You're so unbelievable, McCoy."

 

.9.

 

Hank said his 'thanks' to the girl behind the counter after she gave him back his change. He took his tray of lunch, eyes roaming for empty seat in the huge café. He went to one of the empty tables when someone nudged him on his side, currently just gotten his lunch as well. Hank turned to look at the person and gaped, his tray almost fall from his hands.

Darwin grinned at him. "Hey, man."

"Uhh, h-hey…" he sheepishly replied and Darwin laughed, not unkindly. They sat down on a table together, Darwin getting ready with his silverware while Hank shifted almost uncomfortably on his seat.

"So… how are you?" Hank lamely asked. He seriously had no idea how to communicate with Darwin now. It had been a week after he and Alex finally made up and two days after that Alex proudly exclaimed that he and Darwin were over before he jumped Hank on the kitchen counter.

And now, the black man was sitting in front of him, with his lunch and was smiling at Hank as if Hank didn't just steal his boyfriend.

"Fine. How are you and Alex?" Darwin smiled, tone polite and Hank felt like the bad guy.

Wait, maybe he was the bad guy.

"Umm… okay. Darwin, listen-" Hank stammered to apologize but Darwin quickly raised his spoon, waving it absent mindedly as he cut him off. "Ah, ah, ah. I know what you are getting at. Don't worry, man, everything is cool."

Darwin grinned before he started to dig in. Hank gulped but he only nodded, quickly went to eat his own lunch. They managed a chat, surprisingly and the black man chuckled while giving him tips about Alex and his behaviours, his  _mischievousness_  actually and Hank had to laugh once he revealed an incident happened during Alex's first experience to drive a car. Darwin had accompanied him when the blond accidentally hit a squirrel; Alex had abruptly pulled his car into a stop and cried like a traumatized girl right away.

Hank didn't realize that time was passing by so fast if not for Alex, who showed up at the cafeteria three hours later. Alex's face was red with fumes and Hank paled when he remembered that he was supposed to meet Alex at the library two hours ago. They had to finish their 'Oxytocin' assignment there because Hank was overly frustrated by the fact that their work wasn't going to finish when a bed was present in the same room.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Alex demanded an answer as he stood between them and Hank paled even more when Darwin laughed at him.

"Why? Afraid that I'm stealing your boyfriend?" he teased, causing Hank to blush heavily while Alex rolled his eyes at the former.

"You won't, I'm unforgettable after all."

Hank had to suppress an urge to strangle Alex since the blond had no sense of sensitivity at all. But Darwin smiled at him, shaking his head at his words, admitting it at the same time. "Yeah."

Alex smirked before raised a fist and hit Hank upside on his head. Hank winced, rubbing the sore spot as Alex pointed out his finger at the direction of the library.

"That's for ditching me for two hours. Now I got class to attend, see you later." Alex chuckled and Hank made at a face at him but it went away when Alex leaned in to kiss him on his head. Darwin just watched the whole interaction without saying anything but the smile stayed on his face.

So before they went to take their ways, Hank casually held onto the black man's arm, face serious but his tone sympathized.

"You're still in love with him."

But Darwin just smiled and Hank thought that he was the bravest man he ever knew.

 

Hank always wondered how people were going to take his relationship with Alex. Of course at first he called his parents, telling them everything about Alex and surprisingly, his parents seemed to like Alex just by listening to his description of their early meeting. He had exclaimed 'Why? I hated him so much at first!' and his mother retorted – always the smug one in the house – 'Because he is the one who finally managed to get into your solid nerves.'

Charles took it happily. He even planned to make them a party but after screams and shouts of 'Fuck no!', 'Please, Charles, that's exaggerated!' and 'I'll fucking kill you if you even dare to think about this by the next three seconds', the brunette finally shut up with a pout. Erik glared daggers at them for that and Alex fought back with his pitchfork glare.

Maybe the most interesting respond at all was from Raven.

"What! You're settling with this… this  _creature_?"

"How dare you, bitch-"

"Raven, I'm sorry about my sexuality-"

"Hank, it's not that! I just thought that you'd end up with  _Sean_  instead of  _this_!"

Let just said that the only fantastic part of that line was that Erik choked on his coffee during that eventful dinner, and Alex actually jumped across the table to eliminate the younger Xavier. Charles frantically tried to be the peacekeeper and they only froze when Erik stood up, grabbed a fork and threw it in the direction of Alex, which almost cause him to lose his neck.

Hank had face-palmed and groaned out of frustration. It was hard to tell sometimes how actually he ended up befriended and boyfriended – was that word even existed? Hank grimaced – with all those maniacs.

And people would mostly think that ever since he and Alex became boyfriends, Alex would stop making his life a living hell. Well, Hank was more than  _happy_  to tell everyone that he didn't.

 _Not_  even  _close_.

Alex had even created this one quote that he loved to use every time he pulled a prank on him, or just simply annoyed him just for the sake of it.

So the mornings during breakfast, when Hank looked down at his plate and saw that his bacons had gone missing and suddenly Alex, who was sitting beside him had extra bacons on his plate, the blond would turned to look at him and said with a grin, 'You can't be mad at me. I'm your boyfriend.'

Also when they went for a jog at the park, side by side and Hank suddenly found himself being pushed into the lake they used to round for their run. Alex would leaned down to look at him as he laughed madly. The ever-so-familiar smirk was there on his face and Hank glared at him for that. But of course, he would just simply shrug it away with, 'You can't be mad at me. I'm your boyfriend' and that endearing smile Hank loved so much.

Alex didn't waste any of his time and advantage at all. And all the time when Hank skimmed through the pages of his anatomy book and saw some of the diagrams being violated with drawings of Superman, Gundams and even doodles and hearts, he knew it was Alex's doings. Of course Alex was there, lounging on his bed, reading a comic and without even looked up as he said it, 'You can't be mad at me. I'm your boyfriend.'

But even the so- called patient Hank McCoy had his own limit.

It finally came, in the first day of December when Hank got his hands full with all of his socks. He could feel it, the madness and the urge to kill his boyfriend were struggling to escape and finally Hank put away his shield and shouted.

" _Alexander_ _ **fucking**_ _Summers! Why the_ _ **hell**_ _my socks are all pinks!_ "

He was sitting on his bed, pulling the socks as if he tried to rip them into half out of frustration and when Alex finally made his appearance, Hank's anger was abruptly forgotten.

The blond was standing upon his door, hair soaked and stuck on his forehead – the sign that he just got his bath – and he was wearing Hank's larger white buttoned up shirt, few tops buttons undone. The crucial point was that, Alex had no pants on him. He leaned against one side of the doorframe, eyebrow raised and arms crossed.

Hank found the sudden urge to pull the blond in because no one had the right to look at Alex like this except him. And why the hell was he walking around with those slim, sexy hips revealed?

Ugh, Hank wondered how could his life became so full with lucks and cursed at the same time.

So Hank just blinked his eyes and without giving Alex any time to say his famous quote, Hank bet him to it first.

"You're my boyfriend." He heard his voice was heavy and strained, with lust as his eyes wandered on Alex's figure. Alex smirked and nodded his head.

"Yes, Hank  _darling_  McCoy, I'm  _your_  boyfriend."

And let just said the pink socks were forgotten for the rest of the day once Hank got his hands on Alex's naked hips and Alex pressed their lips together in a fervent kiss.

 

Sebastian returned back a week later and did his routine like nothing happened. Hank watched as Charles smiled at him and hugged him like the first time he met him and Hank had to wonder if it had anything to do with Erik.

The night of that day, Hank was just about to enter his bedroom – which was next to Charles' – when he accidentally overheard something. Charles was saying something that Hank couldn't make up but his tone was caring and gentle. Erik replied to him in a stern voice instead. Both of them must be close to the bedroom door as the conversation took place and Hank blinked when he heard some vague sentences.

"-he won't, Erik, calm your mind, he won't do anything-"

"-I don't trust anyone but you, Charles, I don't trust-"

"-He's a friend-"

"-He could want more than that-"

"-Erik, I'd go miles for you, I'd give up the world for you-"

"-Doesn't change the fact that he's here and alive-"

"-if you love me, Erik, that won't be a matter at all."

And then there was silence. Hank blinked his eyes and a smile curved on his lips when he heard both of them breathed heavily, separated only by the thin wood called a door.

"I do love you, Charles… more than I can ever promise."

Hank decided that he was eavesdropped a second later and he involuntarily blushed when moans and groans were later present. They'd better not making sex against the wall, Hank paled at the thought before he quickly ran to enter his own room.

 

It was in the middle of a night, after their full of passion sex session, Hank finally had the gut to bring up the only thing that still bugging his mind.

"Alex, do you still remember all those nights… about a month ago?"

"Ugh, Hank, please, don't tell me we're going to have a pillow talk or something. I'm fucking tired." Alex groaned sleepily but he didn't move from his position, curled like a kitten against Hank as Hank ran his long fingers through his sweat-soaked blond locks.

The brunette laughed, pressing kisses against his boyfriend's head and Alex made an attempt to snuggle closer against him.

"Yeah."

His short answer taken Hank by surprise before Hank blinked his eyes and pulling away slightly. Alex whined at the loss of contact but Hank quickly put his palms to cup his cheeks, titling his head up so that their eyes met.

"So you did realize that you sleepwalked?" Hank asked; blue eyes wide in shock, and Alex involuntarily blushed.

"I tried my best to stop once I realized it, okay? There's no need to rub it on my face." The blond murmured passively, their noses inches apart and Hank couldn't help the grin that wanted to escape. He pressed a kiss on Alex's temple and Alex just softly sighed.

"Have you ever thought why?"

Alex shrugged at his question, moving closer to eliminate any distance between them and Hank welcomed him in his embrace more than gladly.

"No. But maybe I was just attracting to you. It made sense. I love being near you." Alex whispered, sleepiness still visible in his tone. Hank put a hand behind his head and pressed Alex's face gently against his shoulder.

There was silence for a moment as Hank spent another minute to think. He let the sound of Alex's breathing brought warmth to his chest and his fingers idly moved to rub on his nape. Alex was smaller than him, fitted in his arms perfectly but his personality was nothing similar. He could be the most ruthless and insensitive person that Hank ever knew but yet, he couldn't put himself away from the blond.

And sometimes, Hank wondered if he didn't get this room, this dorm, would he even be here now? All those nonsense, starting from Charles and his ridiculous, overload brightness, Erik and his glares, Sebastian and his dead eyes, Raven and her perfection, Sean and his wits, and finally, Alex and his…  _Alex-ness_.

Hank had to blink his eyes when Alex shifting slightly in his arms, his arms limped around Hank's shoulders as he buried his face closer to his neck. Smiling to himself, Hank shook his head and kissed the blond head lovingly.

All those madness and nonsense had their price.

Hank had Alex now.

Even though Alex was not perfect,  _not perfect at all_ , Alex was the right one for him. Hank believed so.

"Alex?"

"Hmm?" a sleepy hum.

"I love you."

He waited for a whole minute and had to chuckle when Alex's snores answered him instead of words. He wrapped his arms tighter around the blond and thanked for any almighty up there, for letting him lived this moment.

But few hours later, Hank found himself had to cover the sleeping Alex's ears with his hands to stop him from waking up out of moans, groans and screams from the next room.

"Charles, please keep it quiet! Some people are trying to get their sleeps here!"

No matter how much Hank was happy with his life now, Hank grimaced, some things just never changed.

.

.

.

End.

 

 

 

 


End file.
